LED growlight information from Growco Indoor Garden Supply

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LED Growlight Facts

12-2009 UPDATE:

Both of the Supernova's (enhanced and regular), and the LED UFO have a 3 year warranty, the first year is 100% coverage including all shipping costs, then the 2 years after that are pro-rated warranty, and the customer pays the shipping. We haven't had any big issues yet, but all of the small stuff that's come up has been taken care of by these guys in a very professional manner.

6-2009 UPDATE:

Well, I guess I can confidently say that the face of Growlights as we know (and love) them is changing.

The Supernova LED growlights really do work! You'll get very respectable results out of your garden with these things, and you won't have to deal with heat!

They are still very expensive, and growth with them is definitely slower than with HID's, but they are going to give you very good results! I'd put one of these up against a 600 watt HID any day of the week.

Now we're bringing in the 'enhanced spectrum' Supernova's, which we haven't tested against the standard Supernova, but they should only give us better results in comparison. My guess is that in 2-3 years, we'll see the big name companies in the industry putting their name on LED's, and it will become the best accepted way to grow indoors.

3-2009 UPDATE:

The Supernova feedback is just starting to roll in, and so far it's been all positive!

The smaller UFO's worked really well, but they weren't quite enough to be a stand alone light. They worked better when you grouped them in number, or used them in conjunction with other supplementary lights.

The intensity of the Supernova's is enough that it put's them into a new middle category somewhere better than fluorescent fixtures, and not quite as good as HID's in function.

The only real criticism I can make of them is that plants respond slower to them in comparison to the HID's, more along the lines of fluorescent's, but with a respectable yield from the plants.

Overall, considering their low electrical usage, and lack of heat output, LED's are heading in the right direction to eventually overtake HID's for horticultural use, but they are still very expensive in comparison.

12-2008 UPDATE!

The light we've been waiting for is here! The LED UFO company has 'evolved' the LED growlight to the next generation, and we've got them in stock! The SuperNova is a 270 watt monster LED growlight using the correct spectrum LED bulbs unlike most of the other LED growlights on the market.

The SuperNova is a serious growlight, and casts a blinding all-purpose spectrum that should easily fill a 3' x 3' area.

It's too soon to say what this light is equal to in HID wattage comparable terms, but it's at least three times the output of the original LED UFO.

The biggest thing again, is NO HEAT! You can stuff this light into any small area without heat concerns! Check back with us for updates as we'll be getting feedback from customers, and using them ourselves in the coming months.

WE WERE SKEPTICAL ABOUT LED GROW LIGHTS:

Part of the bad rap that these things are getting is simply due to a lack of knowledge.

OK, here's my long-winded opinion on the LED's. We used to have one of those "Anti-LED!" statements on our website too, but at some point I wanted to know for myself, so I broke down and paid full retail for two LED UFO's to test them out. I wanted "friend feedback" instead of relying on magazine articles, and online forum opinions.

WE NOW SAY "YES" TO SOME LED GROW LIGHTS:

I hooked up two of our good local customers with these LED UFO's. I knew these guys, and I knew that I'd get good solid feedback from them every step of the way.

I was sold within 3 weeks after I gave the lights to them just from their feedback on the vegetative growth.

The young plants responded to the light like they would to the new T5 fluorescent fixtures. Tight inter-nodal growth, and short stocky, strong plants.

The plants looked a little different, and their leaves tend to curl down, but the leaves are thick, and a healthy shade of green. After that, vegetative growth was similar to what it would be with a 250 watt HPS light but healthy and progressing normally.

Fruiting and flowering went the same, slightly slower than normal but healthy and strong, and with surprisingly dense development. (I recommend adding fluorescent or HID lighting to improve spectrum output during fruiting and flowering stages.) And, the fruit and flowers looked beautiful. The finished results from both of these guys was an enthusiastic thumbs up, and both of these guys usually garden with some respectable wattage.

LED ADVANTAGES:

One LED UFO gives you the results you'd expect from a 250 watt HPS light.

Yet uses only 1/4 of the electricity!

Doesn't kick out any heat at all, so no venting costs.

You start comparing the positives to the negatives, and they start looking better and better.

CONSIDERATIONS:

I don't think LED's are the best choice for really big plants, or anyone that wants a seriously productive garden, but for houseplants or a nice hobby garden (or heat-free summer garden) they work really well.

We're on the first true generation of these things, so I expect they'll only improve as time goes on, and hopefully the prices will come down as the new fixtures come out. It's probably only a short matter of time until you'll see a Hydrofarm LED, and a Sunlight Supply LED hitting the market.

NOTE:

Then, you've got a bunch of people trying to capitalize on the popularity of LED's by selling them on EBay, but these guys are selling junk. To the best of my knowledge, there are only two brands on the market that are actually using the correct bulbs - the UFO, and another one called the Procyon100.

There are some fake Chinese fixtures on the market that look the same as the LED UFO's, but are cheap imitators. These fake UFO's don't have a separate ballast box, and only come with a one year warranty. You can find them on EBay for a little less money, but they're a rip-off and won't work well because they have the wrong bulbs in them! Some of the negative forum opinions are probably written by EBay shoppers that didn't do their homework or wanted to save a few bucks. LED's haven't taken the place of HID's, and may never take their place, but if you use the real thing, I'm convinced most anyone will like the results.